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The 2025 Three Minute Thesis final competition will be held Feb. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m.

What is the best way to distill a multitude of information into just three minutes?

That’s the question eleven graduate students will be wrestling with as part of the Graduate School’s eighth annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, which will be held in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom on Feb. 13, 2025, from 4 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but .

This event challenges students to explain their thesis to the general public. They are then evaluated by a panel of judges from across the university and local community, including Waleed Abdalati, executive director of the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and professor of geography; Jared Bahir Browsh, director of critical sports studies and an assistant teaching professor; Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for leadership support and programming; and Aaron Brockett, City of Boulder mayor.

In the days leading up to the event, we’ll feature each of the competitors. Today is Nandi Pointer, a doctoral candidate in media studies. Her 3MT presentation’s title is, “Exit to Entry: Black Expats and Teaching English as a Fugitive, Liberatory Praxis.”

If you had to describe your research in one sentence, what would you say?

My research focuses on Black male identity formation in expats who enact teaching English abroad as a fugitive, liberatory praxis.

What do you feel is the significance of your research to the every day audience?

A relatively new area of study, many Americans are unaware of Black men who leave their native country to teach English overseas. My research investigates how the uneven distribution of justice and equality in the U.S., coupled with the violence that targets the Black male body, creates the desire to enter spaces in which their blackness might be seen and read differently.

What led you to pursue your doctoral degree in your field of study?

My passion for education and media.

What is your favorite thing about the research you do?

I love interviewing people and learning more about their experience as expats overseas.

What did you do before coming to ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder for graduate school?

I was an ESL instructor at King Faisal University in Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia.

What are your hobbies/what do you enjoy doing outside of your academic work?

I enjoy traveling, playing the flute and spending time with our dog, Ginger, in my free time.

Tell us a random fact about yourself

My aunts are The Pointer Sisters.